We have an older motorhome, and were thinking of upgrading. The bedroom is NOT a good layout for arthritic older folks with bad backs. The cost and effort of selling ours or trading for a new new one, then MOVING IN was just too much for me to do.
One camping trip this summer, I could not sleep that first night. I lay there thinking how I could redo our camper to make it what we were looking for in a new one. I had a brainstorm. We hated our bed, and its layout in the back bedroom! That's where I came up with my plan! When we got home, we stripped out the old bed, and right over the top of its frame, we made ourselves twin beds. We got 2 air mattresses from Coleman, and a pump.
At home, we have a bed that raises up and down, and we sleep with an incline. I brainstormed that too! I went online, at Walmart.com, and purchased us 2 Wedge Memory Foam pillows. We recently tried the new beds out on a weekend trip. OH, MY, how much better we slept, and now Hubby can get in and out of his own bed without crawling over me to do so. We only spent about $100 on the new bedroom layout, and no telling how much we saved by not swapping our camper out for another one!
One other nice factor: we left the old bedframe intact under the new one, because there were little doors there where things could be stored. We simply put in plyboard, that was reinforced underneath, in place in the area between our 2 new beds, and hinged the plyboard from the back. Now we have 2 options for the storage area - we can still use the little doors, or we can raise the plyboard and get things in and out a little easier. We used a piece of carpet to cover the plyboard, so it looks nice, feels nice when we stand on it, and it is very convenient.
Finally, if we ever want to do so, we can replace the full bed, by just removing the framing over it, and it will be same as it ever was.
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Terrific idea! And a lot cheaper than those expensive mattresses at the store (sleep Number) which I always thought were nothing more than expensive air mattresses. When your air mattress starts to leak it won't be very expensive to replace them. Good for you!
Great plan and now you know you can "spruce" up any other part of it too!
Finally got around to making an After Shot! This is our new bedroom in Helen The Holladay Rambler!
We used to own a sleep number bed, and it WAS exactly the same little air mattresses with a bunch of foam pieces that moved, shifted, wore out, and aggravated the daylights out of us. Never again. The Coleman Air Mattress worked like a charm, so far has not deflated, and sleeps great.
We re-did a living area on the camper before this one, and made ourselves a kingsize bed where the sofa was, then added a tv so our whole family could lie there on pillows and watch tv. We also have used 'campus' fridges to replace ones that 'died'. This is actually our second re-done camper.
Turning a camper into a temporary home can be pretty easy as well. You can leave the camper at a lakeside, on a mountain lot, in a campground, or in your back yard. I had a friend who purchased a camper for her mom who refused to live with her. They parked the camper right behind their house, added a sewer hookup to their septic tank, and built a deck between their sliding glass door and the camper door.
Now they had a complete, private living space for her mom, very near so they could keep check on her, adjoining their home, yet easy to pull out so they could take camping trips with mom to the beach, lake, and mountains. She was able to keep her back bedroom when they were camping, and really enjoyed going places with them, as well as her privacy at home, plus the peace of mind knowing they were nearby.
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